A Detour to the Underworld

Hey ya,

Today is a very weird day for me. Weird in a good way. Naz, Jufri, Sapir and myself planned to watch Underworld that premiered in the UK today. Naz, Jufri and me went first to Cineworld. But while we were on the way, a brother approached us asking for a favour. His name was Said from Iran (or was it Iraq? I'm not so sure). He asked us for a direction to the nearest mosque so that he could find a place to sleep as he just got to Cardiff and his friend who he was supposed to meet was not in Cardiff, but in Birmingham. We decided to help him, but to no avail, we could not confirm whether Darul Isra' was open or not because it was already past Isya' prayers. What made us feel compelled to help him is because of what happened to him while looking for a mosque.

He has been going about the city asking for a little bit of money just so that he could buy a bus ticket to go to Birmingham which would cost him £23. He asked around any Muslim brother that he could find just asking for a little help but they turned him away, saying "Sorry but I can't help you". He then decided, in a state of emergency, to go to the church if they could give him a little bit of help. Though the church didn't give him money, they provided him with sandwich, biscuits and coffee. They even gave him a blanket to keep himself warm since he can't stay in the church. Having heard this, we decided to take him to the bus station to buy him his bus ticket. Unfortunately, the tickets office was already closed and the first bus that we could find for him is on Saturday at 0745 hours. By that time, Sapir had already joined us. So we decided to give him the money as we had other plans. By the reaction of his face, we knew that he was indeed desperate for help. It was because we decided to give a little over £30 so that he can buy some food for himself, but he refused as he only needed the money sufficient enough to buy the bus ticket. It showed how much he needed our help, but we insisted saying a Muslim should help other Muslim and he is after all our brother. And so he left, to stay the night at the train station with the blanket from the church. I really hope that he would be fine when he reaches Birmingham tomorrow. May Allah bless him, and I hope that our little contribution would make all of us a better person.

I now started thinking. We, as a Muslim, condemned the Israelis over the bombardment of Gaza. Demonstrations and strikes were held in various countries as a sign to show our unity. However it saddened me to hear that one Muslim brother could not get the help he so desperately needed. And we call ourselves Muslim. We were brought up with Islamic values and ever since we were just a tot, we learn that "Semua orang Islam adalah saudara". As a brother to one another, we should help each other whenever we are capable of helping them. It really brought tears into my eyes, thinking about all these. Those people who brings fire into his speeches, telling people to go for jihad, saying we should die to defend Islam, and not being afraid to do so. And yet, no one would even give a helping hand when a brother needed one. Is this Islam? Is this what you called brotherhood? Is this what you called unity?